Sajji maneuvered his glider in wide circles along the coastline as he searched.
The wounded had already been transported back to the Knowledge Seeker aboard small Airships for more specialized treatment. Only Serl remained unaccounted for.
No one wanted to believe it, but realistically, Serl's chances of surviving after volunteering to hold the enemy back were extremely slim.
Turning back now and withdrawing from this high-risk area would have been entirely reasonable. Under normal circumstances, that was exactly what the search and rescue team would have done.
However, most of the Hunters taking part in the rescue knew Serl personally, especially Altaïr and Isis. Altaïr normally called him "Brother Serl," while Isis was practically one step away from calling him her brother-in-law. Naturally, neither was willing to give up so easily.
The same was true of Francesca.
She had first asked the Gajalaka to help search for clues, then accompanied the wounded back to the Knowledge Seeker aboard the small Airship. Once there, she went straight to the Professor, who was leading the operation, and successfully persuaded him.
Her argument was blunt. She invoked no grand principles about never abandoning anyone and said nothing about friendship or bonds.
Instead, she said, "Our target and the creature that attacked the Vanguard Hunting Party are very likely the same being. The attack happened only a day ago, so there is a strong chance that clues remain along the coast. This is our best opportunity to find the target."
Everyone knew Francesca was really trying to find Serl, not the mysterious Monster's trail, but her reasoning was sound nonetheless.
The attack on the Airship had once again demonstrated how dangerous the mysterious Monster was. Only by identifying the attacker and pinpointing its location as quickly as possible could the threat be minimized.
Once that was done, the group could decide whether to launch a subjugation operation with its current forces or request further reinforcements from the Guild.
If this opportunity slipped away and the creature escaped, there was no telling when the Hunters might pick up its trail again.
News of another village or town disappearing every few days would be terrifying.
Thus, the search and rescue mission became an investigation.
The Hunters and their hunting partners spread out along the coastline where the battle had taken place and began a more meticulous search.
A gust of sea wind blew toward Sajji. He had been circling the area and was about to ride the gust to gain altitude when a familiar scent amid the salty tang caught his attention.
He immediately descended, alighting like an agile swallow on the reef-strewn coast.
Sajji folded and stowed his glider, climbed onto a reef, stretched out his neck, and sniffed around.
He soon caught the scent again.
It was the smell of a Paintball.
"Meow!" Sajji cried excitedly and sprinted toward the source of the scent.
The wind along the coast was strong, and the scent was so faint that it came and went. It took considerable effort for him to locate its source at last.
It was a reef protruding from the surface of the sea.
A few drops of Paintball fluid had landed on the reef's highest point, beyond the incoming tide's direct reach. Although more than a day had passed and the scent had dispersed, the faintest trace still lingered.
This was a major discovery!
Without hesitation, Sajji fired an SOS Flare to summon his companions.
Minutes later, Altaïr and the others came rushing over after their long, fruitless search.
The Paintball traces immediately lifted everyone's spirits. Whatever the outcome, they had finally found a thread to follow instead of continuing to search the beach blindly.
Altaïr leaned closer to examine the traces. "These marks were smeared onto the reef. It looks like... the trail heads from here toward the sea."
In addition to the small amount of Paintball fluid, he noticed other marks on the reef. Just as he was trying to analyze them further, Dylan strode over.
He ran a hand across the marks, studied them for two seconds, and said with absolute certainty, "These were left as the tide was going out.
"The barnacles have been scraped clean off. They cling incredibly tightly and do not simply fall away. Whatever scraped against this reef was extremely hard and exerted considerable force, as if it had squeezed past the rock.
"A creature capable of devouring an entire village overnight must be enormous. Spread out and search the area. Other reefs nearby should bear similar traces."
At his words, the Hunters immediately dispersed to search.
Sure enough, they soon found several more places with similar scrape marks left by something hard. Reefs were naturally uneven, and the incoming tide concealed the evidence. No one would have noticed such traces without searching for them specifically.
What truly sent chills down everyone's spines was that the two farthest scrape marks were more than fifty meters apart...
That suggested a body of almost unbelievable proportions. Even a Jhen Mohran was nowhere near fifty meters wide.
Could this creature be even larger than a Jhen Mohran?
"Could it have moved by slithering like Lagiacrus or Mizutsune, weaving through the reefs and leaving marks across such a wide area?"
"Not likely." Dylan shook his head. "Almost all the scrape marks point toward the sea. That is not what we would see if it had been wandering back and forth among the reefs.
"We examined the Airship wreckage earlier. It bore similar scrape marks from something hard, along with traces of having been coiled by something long.
"Many marine Monsters kill prey by constriction, including long, slender Sea Beasts like Lagiacrus and certain...
"supergiant soft-bodied organisms.
"If it is the latter, tentacles flailing as the creature crawled could have produced marks like these. That would match the Professor's hypothesis.
"Together with the bone fragments scattered among the reefs, these traces give us a fairly clear idea of the target's identity."
Altaïr nodded in agreement with Dylan's assessment. After a moment's thought, he pointed in the direction of the marks and said to Sajji, "Sajji, you and Hakucho will scout over the water in this direction. Start by... yes, going as far as ten kilometers offshore.
"Pay particular attention to any islands or unusually large reefs."
"Got it, meow!" Sajji gave a sharp whistle, spread his glider, and soared into the air on the sea breeze. He and Hakucho headed out over the ocean together.
Dylan glanced at Altaïr and guessed what he was thinking. "You suspect its nest is somewhere nearby?"
"Yes." Altaïr nodded slightly. "If the target truly is the creature we suspect, then as a marine creature, it should not normally go out of its way to attack aerial targets passing overhead.
"There are only two likely reasons it would do so. Either it was hunting for food, or its nest is nearby and it saw the high-speed Airship carrying the Vanguard Hunting Party as an intruder."
Isis spoke with a hint of excitement. "If that thing's nest really is nearby, could it have carried Serl back to keep him as food for later?
"Some creatures do that, right? Such creatures paralyze live prey, knock it unconscious, then carry the victim back to the nest and save it for later."
The idea was horrifying, but at least it offered a glimmer of hope.
"With all due respect, that is very unlikely," Dylan cautioned.
He was not trying to dampen their spirits, but he did not want the young Hunters to lose their reason over such a faint hope.
Just as the Hunters fell silent again, a massive shadow swept over their heads.
They looked up nervously, and some immediately drew their weapons, only to realize that the shape overhead was not the Monster they had imagined.
For some reason, the Knowledge Seeker, which should have been hovering several thousand meters above the ground, had descended to an altitude of less than two hundred meters.
While the Hunters were still wondering why, the small Airship detached from the Knowledge Seeker and rapidly descended to the ground.
Francesca jumped down from the small Airship and strode toward the Hunters.
"Buck is awake. Based on the information he provided, we can now be reasonably confident that the attacker was Nakarkos, the Skeleton Dragon.
"According to our records, this Monster can attack airborne targets, but its range is limited and the attack requires a relatively long preparation time, so it does not pose a particularly serious threat to the Knowledge Seeker.
"The Professor has therefore agreed to let the Knowledge Seeker take a more active role in the operation..."
Francesca paused. Her tone abruptly became irascible.
"So, have you found any leads or not? I've had every suitable material aboard the ship turned into explosives. I'm going to blow that damn thing to ashes!"
P.S. The attack mentioned here is the Dragon Element beam fired from Nakarkos's tentacles, not Genesis. Genesis is not an attack Nakarkos can use at will. The reason its anti-air attack poses only a limited threat will be explained later.